Carrier

After Shock

Liam's POV

A week has gone by since the fire. We are staying with Anne and Robin seeing as they have the most room and have no children living at home anymore. Louis, Niall and Harry had gone back to the house when the fire department gave them the clear. They searched the house for anything that was salvageable and throwing it in garbage bags. Most of the house is in ruins. There are two giant holes and parts of the roof is missing. Everything is soaked in water and snow. It all reeks of smoke and stained with it. There isn't much they could save. When they came back they each had about two bags each which is six garbage bags of our lives. When they showed me this, I broke down crying. 

We all have taken the loss of the house hard, but each night when the four of us settle in bed with the twins in their makeshift beds nearby we hold each other close knowing it could have been so much worse.

It took three days for me to get Zayn to explain to me why his knuckles were so badly bruised. When he did finally tell me he broke down crying. He didn't regret hurting my dad, what he does regret is the risk he has now put his freedom in and the hurt that will surely come for all of us.

"Surely we should have heard something by now," Zayn's words break down the heavy silence that has weighed down on us as we help make dinner together before Anne and Robin get home from work.

"We're lucky we haven't. You should not have even reacted the way you had. We were all pissed and hurt, but none of us went and beat the man that did  it even if we all wanted to. You're rash reaction has put our family at risk and  risked your own freedom. Luke and Jeremiah could have to see their biological father behind bars because you couldn't control yourself!" Louis snaps slamming down the knife he had been using to chop up vegetables. The tension between Louis and Zayn has finally broken and it is now exploding.

"I'm sorry, but I wanted to get a little even because let's face it he'll be out of prison and face no charges. I did not want to let him escape this scotch free. I will not regret what I did to him, I will just regret the hurt that may come to you all because of it," Zayn replies coldly looking up from the pan of sauce he had been stirring. 

"Don't tell the cops that," Louis snorts turning back to the vegetables continuing to angrily cut them.

Zayn sighs looking away from Louis he turns catching eyes with Harry. Harry just continues to roll meat into small balls. He glance at me as I lay garlic bread out on the pan before me.

I meet his hazel eyes and smile a warm, soft smile. No matter what he does I could never hate Zayn, he may have reacted rashly and not thought things over all that well, but he is human and he made a mistake. It's not like my father was some innocent man. He had just lit our home on fire and could have killed us all. He deserves everything he has coming to him and every blow that Zayn gave him. 

His smile that he returns is tearful but relieved.

A cry comes from behind from the living room where the twins have been playing in their play pen. I sigh swinging myself around and pushing myself up out of my seat my hand on my huge 10 month 2 week belly. I waddle my way over to their play pen bending over the pen gently. Luke holds his arms up at me his eye scrunched shut as he wails. 

"Aw what's wrong, baby?" I ask lifting him out of the pen. I lift him up doing a diaper check and the smell tells me he has made a major mess in it.

I lay him down on the couch grabbing one of the bags that are by the couch. I dig through it grabbing a new diaper and some wipes. I change his diaper with ease after handing him his favorite stuffed dog. 

Now getting back up to lay him back down in his crib is an entirely different story. I try using the couch for support, I try to push up from the floor, nothing is working. I groan with frustration falling backwards onto the floor my hands resting on my huge watermelon stomach.